Current mood:	bored
Current music:	The Arcade Fire (Neon Bible album)
Entry tags:	movies, oscars

If I picked the Oscars...
These are my preferences for who should win, not my predictions of who will win.

Best Motion Picture of the Year: This category is a toss-up for me. I enjoyed The Departed more, but Babel is more ambitious. I'll be happy with either film winning. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go with Babel.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: I like Forest Whitaker and would be happy to see him win. The only problem is that I haven't seen The Last King of Scotland. Limiting my choice to the films I did see (all of the others), I'll go with Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson. It was a really difficult role, and he excelled at it.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: I didn't see The Queen, but I'm always leery of acting performances based on living and well-known people. The resulting performances often end up being more about impersonation than real acting. Of the performances I did see, I liked Kate Winslet in Little Children best. I'd give Judi Dench the runners-up award, if there were one. It's disappointing to me that Maggie Gyllenhaal was not nominated. She gave three of the best performances of the year in Stranger Than Fiction, Sherrybaby, and World Trade Center. She really deserved to be nominated. I'd go so far as to say she was the actress of the year for me.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Once again the leading candidate (Eddie Murphy) was in the one film in the category that I didn't see (Dreamgirls), but I cannot imagine a better performance than Mark Wahlberg in The Departed. He stole every scene he was in, and really made the performance his own.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Rinko Kikuchi in Babel for sure. She gave possibly the year's most impressive performance by anyone, male or female, in any role. I really, really hope she wins. Supposedly, she's a longshot. The thinking goes that she'll split the vote with Adriana Barraza, also of Babel, but I'm pulling for her.

Best Achievement in Directing: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel), Paul Greengrass (United 93), and Martin Scorsese (The Departed) all deserve the award, but I'd be happiest to see Scorsese win it.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: As the years go on, I'm starting to believe that the winner of the Best Original Screenplay category is the real Best Picture of the year. Over the past ten years, I would much rather re-watch the Best Original Screenplay nominees than the Best Picture nominees. This year, I would give the award to Pan's Labryinth with Babel a close runner-up.

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: This may be the toughest category to pick. Only Borat doesn't deserve to be here. (It was mostly improvised, so how did it get nominated for its screenplay?!) I'd love to see Children of Men win some award, but I think Little Children is probably the best adapted screenplay of the year. The use of voiceover in that film to bring the language of the novel to the film-goer was bold and well done.

Best Achievement in Cinematography: Nothing comes close to Children of Men in terms of cinematography. I really hope it wins. I'd give the runner-up award to Pan's Labyrinth. It's a shame The Fountain didn't get nominated in this category. It was memorably beautiful film.

Best Achievement in Editing: This category has to be a slam dunk for Babel. Iñárritu spent almost a year editing this film, meticulously crafting the narrative and the performances.

Best Achievement in Art Direction: I'd love to see Pan's Labyrinth win. Or The Prestige.

Best Achievement in Costume Design: Can there be any doubt? Marie Antoinette better win or there's no justice in the Oscar world. Runner up: Curse of the Golden Flower.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Cars is the only one of the three that I've seen. I heard Monster House was really good, even better than Cars, but I didn't see it.
 
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: No clear winner here, but I liked Pan's Labyrinth's score. Babel's was also very nice. I might give it the edge actually. I really wish Superman Returns had been nominated. It was my favorite score of the year by far.

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: I haven't heard any of these except for Randy Newman's, so I'll abstain.

Best Achievement in Makeup: I'd like to see Pan's Labyrinth win, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apocalypto (which I did not see) won. The full-body makeup on the latter looks pretty impressive.

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing: I have to admit that I still don't understand the difference between sound mixing and sound editing. The same films are usually nominated for both, and you can't do one without the other. I would combine the two categories into one: "Best Achievement in Sound." The producers keep trying to make the Oscars shorter in length, and here's as good of a way as any, if you ask me. I'm going to abstain in this category because I didn't see enough of the films. Of the couple (Blood Diamond and PotC 2) I did see, I'd give the edge to Blood Diamond.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing: Ditto.

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: I'm really, really hoping Superman Returns wins this award because it deserves to win an award for something. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest epitomizes everything that is wrong with CG visual effects.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: I just saw The Lives of Others, and it was wonderful! But I still want Pan's Labyrinth to win this award.

Best Documentary Feature: I've pretty much ignored documentaries this past year. I hear Deliver Us From Evil is pretty impressive, but I haven't seen any of these, so I must abstain.